Crossroads of Rockland History: Anna Frances Levins
▶️ 03/17/25
A 30-minute version of this interview originally aired on Monday, March 17, 2025 at 9:30am on WRCR Radio 1700AM.
Crossroads celebrated both Women’s History Month and Saint Patrick’s Day with a discussion about an exciting program coming up at Harmony Hall in Sloatsburg. Eve Kahn, the former antiques editor for the New York Times, and Elizabeth Stack, the executive director at the American Irish Historical Society, joined host Clare Sheridan to discuss Anna Frances Levins, the Irish American artist and entrepreneur who traveled widely to photograph remotest Ireland and created portraits of sitters ranging from Pope Pius X to martyred Irish revolutionaries.
Anna Frances Levins founded her own company, Levins Press, which published lavish books about the history of Ireland and Irish Americans, and her photos appeared by the hundreds in books, newspapers, and magazines. Levins also helped the newest Irish arrivals at Ellis Island, combating her era's bitter prejudices against immigrants. She eventually married one of her portrait sitters, an Irish baronet. Despite all of this, Levins has ended up in contemporary obscurity.
About the guests:
Eve Kahn is an Independent scholar and is an award-winning author who writes about art, architecture, and design for the New York Times, among other publications. She is the biographer of the artist Mary Rogers Williams (1857-1907) and the writer Zoe Anderson Norris (1860-1914). Ms. Kahn appeared on "Crossroads of Rockland History" to discuss Edith Varian Cockroft of Sloatsburg (episode 95, September 2018).
Elizabeth Stack, PhD, currently the executive director of the American Irish Historical Society in New York City, was previously the executive director of the Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany; before that, she taught Irish and Irish American History and was an associate director at Fordham University’s Institute of Irish Studies. She completed her doctorate at Fordham, writing about Irish and German immigrants in New York at the turn of the twentieth century as they grappled with the immigration restriction movements of that time. She has a master’s degree in Anglo-Irish relations in the 20th century from University College Dublin. From Listowel, in County Kerry, Dr. Stack sees a huge connection between her own experience as an immigrant, and the important mission of the Society to preserve and share Irish contributions to American history. “Major areas of interaction between Ireland and America have included diplomacy, economy, education, nationalism, tourism, culture, philanthropy, and the free flow of capital. However, immigration has given the most significant and lasting link. We explore all these topics in the Society.”
About the Program: Anna Frances Levins
When: Sunday, March 30, 2 pm
Where: Harmony Hall, Jacob Sloat House, 15 Liberty Rock Road, Sloatsburg, NY
Price: Friends of Harmony Hall Members, $20; nonmembers, $25. Light refreshments will be served. Tickets available soon at https://www.friendsofharmonyhall.org/events
In celebration of Women’s History Month: Eve Kahn presents Anna Frances Levins, forgotten Irish American Photographer, Publisher, Immigrant Activist, Bibliophile. Independent scholar Eve M. Kahn, who has mined thousands of pages of Levins's correspondence hidden in Catholic leaders' archives, will present a heavily illustrated report on her research into the life and works of this trailblazer.
Reservations are required.
The American Irish Historical Society will also host Eve Kahn for "Rediscovering Anna Frances Levins, Forgotten Irish American Photographer, Publisher, Political Activist and Baroness"
When: Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Where: 991 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028
For information, go to https://aihsny.org/events-2/rediscovering-anna-frances-levins-forgotten-irish-american-photographer-publisher-political-activist-and-baroness
Crossroads of Rockland History, a program of the Historical Society of Rockland County, airs on the third Monday of each month at 9:30 am, right after the morning show on WRCR radio 1700 AM and www.WRCR.com. Join host Clare Sheridan as we explore, celebrate, and learn about our local history, with different topics and guest speakers every month. Our recorded broadcasts are also available for streaming on all major podcasts platforms.
The Historical Society of Rockland County is a nonprofit educational institution and principal repository for original documents and artifacts relating to Rockland County. Its headquarters are a four-acre site featuring a history museum and the 1832 Jacob Blauvelt House in New City, New York.